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Across the entire economy, these mortgage savings alone translate into savings of $312 million a year.

That's a massive saving for NZ Inc.

"We'll help Kiwibank to grow faster by injecting $100 million of capital into the bank and let it retain more of its profits."

Labour leader Andrew Little said he would not rule out legislating to force banks to pass on cuts by the Reserve Bank, after some banks failed to fully respond to a cut to the OCR to a new record low of 2.25 per cent.

That threat drew scorn from National, and the Green Party responded by saying it was not a measure it would look at.

On TVNZ's Q+A programme today, Mr Little said he stood by his statements, which were about sending a clear signal to the banks to change their behaviour.

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"I stand by the stance I took, which is to get very heavy-handed with the banks. Because the truth is when the banks fail to follow the signal that the Reserve Bank is sending, that's keeping money out of the back pockets of ordinary Kiwis.

"If the banks don't want to play ball when it comes to the way we run our monetary policy, actually, there's only one outfit that can really take them on, and that's the government."